Details emerge in Atascosa County killing

1of5Philip Short says he suspects stepdaughter Tashawna Caldwell's interest in Santeria was bad. “Something must have gotten ahold of her,” he said.Photo: Photos by Jerry Lara / San Antonio Express-News

2of5Tashawna Caldwell was “unclothed and ranting and raving” early Sunday when officers arrived and her son was suffering from multiple stab wounds, the sheriff said.

3of5Caiden Parker, who was almost 2, “was pretty smart and was just starting to talk,” Philip Short said.

5of5Atascosa County Sheriff's crime-scene tape seals off a house on Highland Loop, northwest of Poteet. Tashawna M. Caldwell is accused of stabbing to death her almost 2-year-old son, Caiden Parker, in the house early Sunday morning. She is charged with capital murder. Bail was set at $1 million.Photo: Jerry Lara / San Antonio Express-News

POTEET — The night police say Tashawna Caldwell fatally stabbed her son, just days before his second birthday, she sent her stepfather a series of text messages that he says sent chills down his spine.

“Hey Phil, I feel like I have an uneasy feeling, text me back if you're ok,” wrote Caldwell, 26, to Philip Short around 8 p.m. Saturday.

Short, a truck driver who was on his way to pick up a load in Dallas, said he responded to the strange text and then fell asleep. The next morning, he awoke to find a string of texts Caldwell had sent around 9:25 p.m. that shook him to his core.

“Call YOUR NEIGHBORS BEFORE YOU COME,” she wrote, followed by “You a BOLD mother (expletive),” and “come on HOME DADDYYY,” according to messages that Short shared with a San Antonio Express-News reporter on Monday.

Alarmed by the texts, Short called Caldwell as soon as he saw the messages Sunday morning, but it was too late. Just before 1 a.m. Sunday, according to the Atascosa County Sheriff's Office, Caldwell attacked her sister Shatana and her sister's infant son. According to authorities, her sister and nephew barricaded themselves in a bedroom while Caldwell used a knife from the kitchen to fatally stab her son, Caiden Parker.

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“She even stabbed the dog,” said Short, who arrived early Monday morning at his triple-wide trailer where the Caldwell sisters lived with their children. “This is like a nightmare. It's so shocking and very horrific.”

Atascosa County Sheriff David Soward said Shatana Caldwell, 30, called 911 around 12:50 a.m. Sunday and said her sister was attacking a child and family members.

Two officers arrived within minutes to the house in the 500 block of Highland Loop in Poteet, where they “encountered (Tashawna Caldwell) unclothed and ranting and raving, and saw the child suffering from multiple stab wounds,” Soward said.

Officials detained Caldwell, summoned paramedics for her son and then found Shatana Caldwell, who was uninjured, and her infant son, who had a laceration on his back, Soward said. By the time Caiden Parker arrived at a Jourdanton hospital, he was already dead, Soward said.

Caldwell remains jailed in Atascosa County on one count of capital murder, with bail set at $1 million. She confessed to slaying her son, Soward said.

“She knew what she had done, and she indicated to investigators that she knew it wasn't right,” he said. “It's just hard to comprehend this type of behavior by anyone, especially to your own biological child.”

Soward declined to speculate on a motive and wouldn't rule out drugs or psychological issues. Short said he suspects that his stepdaughter was under the influence of Santeria, a religion that combines traditions from West Africa and the Caribbean with Catholicism.

One month ago, Tashawna Caldwell broke up with Caiden's father, Kenneth Parker, who then moved out of the family's Poteet home. She had since been trying to find a job, but was spooked by a bag of roots Parker had left behind, Short said.

“Something must have gotten ahold of her,” he said, adding he believed Caldwell was drawn into the religion, and “fell for it; hook, line and sinker.”

The couple met in New York, where the Caldwell sisters lived with Short and their mother, who died last year. During Caldwell's senior year, she and Short fought, he said, and he kicked her out of the house.

Years later, she called him to reconcile; although she had been planning on breaking up with Parker, she changed her mind after getting pregnant and the family moved to Short's 10-acre property in Atascosa County, where deputies continued to collect evidence late Monday afternoon.

Short said his stepgrandson, Caiden, was a happy boy who looked much older than his almost 24 months and loved trucks.

“I bought him a remote-control tractor-trailer for his birthday,” Short said. “He was pretty smart and was just starting to talk, and would say, 'See ya later!' I believe he would have played football, maybe been a linebacker.”

Eva Ruth Moravec is a freelance reporter who writes about officer-involved shootings of unarmed individuals in Texas for a grant-funded series published in several Texas newspapers. She is also currently pursuing her Master’s degree in Journalism at the University of Texas at Austin. Moravec covered the 2015 Texas legislative session for the Associated Press and has freelanced for local, state and national news outlets, including the New York Times and The Washington Post. Previously, Moravec worked for several years as a staff reporter covering public safety and later government for the San Antonio Express-News. Read her complete series at www.pointofimpacttx.org.